RAiR: Louise Deroualle

Louise Deroualle uses ceramic materials to create formal abstractions that reveal different physical, experiential and emotional facets of herself. Her work is influenced by the cultural experiences to which she has been exposed—from her upbringing in Brazil to her studies and residence in the United States—and the way those interactions build her identity. She subverts the traditional order of layering glazes over slips and utilizes the fluidity of the glaze layer underneath as a symbol of her inner world of emotions as well as her cultural identity. The stress between the fluid and dry layers of materials results in a partial glimpse into the emotional interior. The slips become an external barrier, while glazes turn into an extremely powerful emotion that always finds its way to the outer reality.

For Deroualle, cultural and language barriers provoke a sense of displacement and generate a wide range of emotional reactions that shape her perception of and interaction with the outer world. These encounters can inspire curiosity, encouraging her to learn more about her own culture and personal way of interacting with the surrounding environment, while at other times frustration and loneliness prevails. Deroualle translates these feelings into her objects through expressive surfaces created by the layering of ceramic materials. Like her own skin, the surfaces of her pieces are thin and fragile barriers between the internal and external world. And like skin, the cracks, blisters, and wrinkles that texture the surfaces of her works record time and stories, veiling and yet revealing who we are.